I'm Going With Creepy

So the latest toy foisted on our kids is another baby doll, but this one apparently makes noisy suckling sounds when, and here's the critical point, the child dons a special halter top that has sensors embedded behind "petal appliques" located in the nipple area of the halter.  Yes, you read that correctly.  The AP story (Creepy or Groundbreaking?) is here.  

Bill O'Reilly has already come out against the dolls, which retail for $89 each.  While they have sold well in Europe, the manufacturer hasn't been able to market them through mainstream retailers in the U.S. due to the retailers' desire to "avoid controversy."  The manufacturer believes the controversy in this country is based on Americans' discomfort with breast-feeding.  Of course, the "petal appliques" do tend to conjure up images of strippers, but...

I can't speak for American toy retailers, and I generally think Bill O'Reilly is full of hot air, but I'm going with "creepy" on this one.   I'm perfectly OK with breast-feeding and I don't think anything about it sexualizes anything, but this doll does something else.   It would seem to be yet another pressure on our children to grow up too fast.   I mean, it's one thing to play at feeding a baby doll, but carrying a doll around pressed to an 8 year old's breast seems to be something other than play.  According to the manufacturer (Lewis):

Lewis considers Breast Milk Baby "very much less sexualized" than Barbie dolls or the sassy Bratz pack.

Small comfort.  Those toys are often just as creepy.  He may be right, but sexualization isn't my point; growing up too fast is.

Pat Boone Says What?

OK, so I think people should vote and be civically involved, but I'm nervous about all the promoting that "everyone" should vote.  I think those who vote should be at least minimally informed of who and what they're voting on.   If you don't care enough to learn at least something factual about the issues of the day, I say stay home.

I just got a robo-call from Pat Boone (I swear he said "Yes, that Pat Boone.  I'm still singing Love Letters In the Sand").  He was calling to "sing the praise of" and encourage us to vote for Joe Walsh, who is (IMO) the biggest tea party dipshit in Congress.  

Now, if encouraging "everyone" to vote means encouraging people who would be influenced by a recorded message from Pat Boone on who to vote for, then I'm against encouraging "everyone" to vote.   I mean, really, Pat Boone was considered to be a worthwhile influence for the Walsh campaign?  Really?  

I shudder to think about the type of person who would get this message and then say, "I'm no longer undecided, I'm gonna do what Pat Boone asked and vote for Walsh."

A Clash of Zealots

So the national chain "Hobby Lobby" has filed a lawsuit against part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which is more often referred to as "Obamacare."   The retail chain, owned by the Green family, believes the ACA requirement for employers to provide health insurance which includes birth control is unconstitutional.   Specifically, they object to being required to cover the morning after pill and similar drugs.  Hobby Lobby describes itself as a "biblically founded business," whatever that means.

It was perhaps inevitable that a group would start an online petition demanding that Hobby Lobby back off this lawsuit.   After all, online petitions seem to be the weapon of choice lately for a wide range of political issues, especially in cases of corporate right-wing, political activism (such as Chick-fil-A).   Ultraviolet, an organization devoted to promoting women's rights, is promoting a petition which states:

"All women deserve affordable access to birth control and it's a woman's personal, medical decision on which form to use. I won’t be shopping at your store until you drop this suit, and I’ll be telling my friends to do the same."

Now, I have never shopped at Hobby Lobby, mostly because I object to their incessant, strident proselytizing.   I just don't get why some people feel it's necessary to be everyone else's face 24/7 about their religious views.  This retail chain's penchant for full-page newspaper religious treatises is too "in my face."  So, I concur that this company needs to join the rest of our society and follow the law passed by our elected representatives.

On the other hand, I think the petition against the Green family's lawsuit has a couple of problems.   First, it's a waste of time because I don't believe the company really cares what people think of the company.   That is, these people are so convinced that their religious views are the only correct views that no petition will change their collective minds.  

Second, there's no back up plan.  As might be expected, Ultraviolet has now reported that 

Hobby Lobby isn't backing down.

After 80,000 petition signatures, thousands of posts on Facebook, and hundreds of calls to their customer service center, Hobby Lobby is still holding firm in its lawsuit against covering certain forms of birth control.

And now the right wing is rallying around the lawsuit. Conservative media outlets are covering the story, while others are drowning Hobby Lobby's Facebook page in positive comments.

It's pretty much exactly what happened a couple months ago with Chick-Fil-A and the anti-gay marriage statements of its founder.  The right circled the wagons and promoted "Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Days."  

So what's the plan?   Ultraviolet is now emailing people to post "reviews" on Yelp, reviews which are not really reviews but political rants:

Can you post a review of Hobby Lobby on Yelp today, and make sure all of its customers know about their anti-woman lawsuit? There are Hobby Lobby stores in 41 states, so there is probably one in your state. 

Suggested language for the "review?"

"I'm very disturbed by Hobby Lobby's lawsuit attempting to deny women access to some forms of birth control. I'm not shopping at Hobby Lobby until they drop this lawsuit, and I hope no one else will either. What kind of birth control a woman uses is definitely not her employer's business. No more Hobby Lobby for me!"

So when Hobby Lobby continues to ignore the outrage, we'll be left with a bunch of faux reviews on a food and entertainment website, and what?   Nothing.

I'm not inclined to post a faux review on Yelp, and while I signed the petition, I don't agree with the last part: "until you drop this suit."   Whether or not Hobby Lobby drops the lawsuit, I won't shop there, for the same reason I haven't shopped there up to now.   I prefer to not patronize a company that has incessant, strident, right-wing proselytizing as part of its business plan.

Technology and Early Adopters

To truly understand how much life has been changed by technology, consider this: my 17 month old grandson Nathaniel understands how to use an iPhone. He knows how to select apps, scroll through photos, and start videos. 

His small motor coordination isn't always quite able to do precisely what he wants, but he definitely knows how to do what he wants. At 17 months.  

This is frightening and inspiring at the same time!  I've been a computer user for more than 30 years, and I always knew that small humans were little sponges in terms of knowledge acquisition.  While there have been jokes around for years about the need for older people to seek assistance from teenagers when needing to program a video recorder (which no one even uses anymore), this latest realization just amazes me.

I recorded a video of Nathaniel playing hide and seek the other day, and he loves to watch stuff like this (starring him) over and over.   He wanted to see my iPhone and watch himself laughing and giggling in the 30 second clip.   And when the clip ended, he didn't hesitate to reach out and poke the tiny play icon to run it again.  Sometimes he hit the icon, sometimes he missed, but he sure knew how to get the video to play.

He seems to represent early adopters, or perhaps, more accurately, early adapters.